I love this time of year. The hills around me are greening to the most shouting Irish hue, the bulbs are up everywhere in the garden, and all my berry bushes are aflame with scarlet berries. Where there are berries there are birds, and the Hermit thrushes, mockingbirds, robins, cedar waxwings, and others enjoy a daily feast.
Warblers, wrens, nuthatches, chickadees, hummingbirds (which cling to the top of my old fountain and take tiny, hummer sized baths), brown creepers, jays (who insist on landing on my back when I am weeding), and others busily pick through the beds and borders of this woodland garden. A glossy family of crows (which recognize my morning call to breakfast and muster on a large pine), flickers, acorn woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, a merlin, red-shouldered hawks, and so many more drop in for visits and keep my quiet life rich and full of joy.
Please keep in touch. Your notes and e-mails are the fuel that helps keep me going.
I'll
leave you with a photograph of my newest blessing, Sara May Arnold,
the daughter of my son Noah and his wife Lea. I look forward to
sharing life with this little girl much as my Grandmother Lovejoy
did with me. I hope she will learn to love the flowers, bees,
spiders, and birds-all the amazing creatures of the earth. And,
I hope that she will turn to the soil for solace and growth and
always know that the most important things in life are ephemeral
and to be treasured minute by minute.
Faretheewell friends,
Sharon
Please check my schedule for some exciting events coming up in 2003. I look forward to lecturing in Modesto for the Garden Club (they are the most passionate gardeners), teaching at COPIA in Napa, CA., programs at the grand old Sagamore Hotel in New York, lecturing at the Kindergarten Forum in Saratoga, California, speaking at Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Flintridge, CA, the garden week at Colonial Williamsburg, the Cheyenne Botanic Garden, the herb festival at the wonderful Landis Valley Museum in Lancaster, PA, some more television visits to The Victory Garden, and much more.